It has long been appreciated that in certain types of activities such as swimming and skiing, a person's ears are vulnerable. One of the hazards of swimming is that water can enter and then remain in a swimmer's outer ear. This not only can create considerable discomfort due to the motion of the water against the eardrum, but also can result in infection of the ear by organisms present in the water. Additionally, certain ear problems such as chronic otitis media are treated by insertion in the eardrum of a small grommet to provide an air passage across the eardrum. The danger of infection by water-carried organisms is particularly acute for persons so treated. In a totally unrelated activity, skiing, one's ears are one of the first body organs to be affected by the cold weather and one of the first body parts to register discomfort from the cold.
Various devices have been available in the past for use by swimmers to bar the entry of water into their ears. The most common of such devices are plugs of different shapes, made of materials such as rubber and plastic. It is difficult, however, to create a plug which fits well (i.e., snugly and comfortably) and also is not easily dislodged. Bathing caps are also sometimes employed for ear protection, but they are a rather unsatisfactory solution since it is virtually impossible to seal the aperture against water. Indeed, bathing caps are not normally intended by their makers to be used for ear protection. Confidence that the protective device will perform as required and will not dislodge is particularly important for a competitive swimmer since he or she will not want to break stroke to adjust an earplug or bathing cap which is working loose. The difficulty of simultaneously satisfying these varied objects is accentuated by the fact that human ears occur in an almost infinite variety of shapes and sizes. To satisfy the needs of the general populace without incurring the manufacturing and marketing overhead of supplying plugs in a wide range of sizes and shapes is challenging. Compromises are often made to reduce the number of earplug sizes to a manageable handful. Consequently, patients in whose eardrums the aforementioned grommets have been placed often find it necessary to have earplugs custom-molded to fit snugly in their ears. Moreover, as many of such patients are young children, such plugs may have only a relatively short lifetime; as the child grows, he or she outgrows a custom-molded earplug. Not only does this require that a new plug or plugs be made periodically, but it also means that any given earplug is maximally effective only briefly.
The prior ear protection devices, particularly plug type devices, may also feel unnatural and appear unattractive. If the user preceives the appearance to be unattractive, he or she may choose to refrain from using the protector, leading to unnecessarily increased danger of infection.
Skier's have protected their ears with earmuffs and with knit caps and other types of hats having ear covering portions. These measures, however, generally provide an ineffective seal against the flow of cold air.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ear protection device which is useable and effective to seal the ear from external fluids.
Another object is to provide an ear protector which can be provided for the populace in only a relatively small number of unique sizes.
A further object of the invention is to provide an ear protection device for swimmers, which device is not easily dislodged from the ear.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an ear protection device which can be made aesthetically attractive.
Yet another object is to provide an ear protection device which is comfortable to wear.